Anyone who is looking to offer high-quality products and services needs clear rules and a good understanding of what is important to customers.
Everyone will, at some time or other, have planned a nice evening out at a restaurant. Choose an establishment with a good atmosphere and a promising menu and everything looks set for a successful evening. Whether it does indeed prove a success and go according to plan, however, depends on various factors that only become clear in the course of the evening – your mood, your dining companion(s), the other people at the restaurant and of course what the food tastes like.
“The experience of a visit to a restaurant is a highly subjective form of quality. For our work at LANXESS, on the other hand, we need a systematic understanding of quality,” explains Joachim Waldi, head of the Technology, Safety & Environment (PTSE) group function. It must be verifiable and satisfy objective functionality, safety and reliability criteria. In the first instance, quality assurance ensures that quality is inherent in the product from the outset. But that is not enough. All the processes involved in making a product must gel together to deliver excellence. Employees must have detailed knowledge of the specifics while also maintaining a broad overview. “For example, this quality management system standardizes the definitions of our central processes worldwide – that is to say the entire value-added chain from quotation to delivery,” says Waldi. This means, for instance, that ion exchange resins are produced in exactly the same way in Germany as they are in India. Sales processes, warehousing and the handling of hazardous/recyclable substances are also subject to mandatory regulations all around the world. “For us, this standardized approach lays the foundation for reliable, high-quality work,” continues Waldi, summing up the benefits of quality management.
A central management system creates clear rules
At LANXESS, all this is organized in a central management system that ensures clear rules based on internal directives and operating procedures. The group is also guided by the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 international standards for quality and environmental management and ISO 50001 for energy management. Our ISO certification currently covers 48 companies with 80 sites in 23 countries. In addition, regular inspections of the safety standards at LANXESS plants in HSE (Health, Safety, Environment) compliance checks make sure that these standards are adhered to worldwide and comply with local legislation. A total of 45 production facilities across the globe were inspected and tested in 2015.
Compliance with high quality standards is also vital at the new filling plant of the Lewatit facility in Leverkusen. “It’s designed to fill and pack weak acid cation exchange resins for food applications. With this food-compliant packaging facility, we’re setting a very high standard for product purity and ensuring even better product quality,” explains Michael Pies, Production Manager in the Liquid Purification Technologies business unit.
Big bags and drums are filled with Lewatit products using food-compatible cleanroom technology across an area of 300 square meters. In order to meet this very high purity and quality standard, the specially sealed building is located in the white zone, permanently under positive pressure and equipped with special ventilation filters. Filling plant staff also have to wear special protective cotton overalls, hoods and impact caps instead of helmets. In addition, disinfection mats and dispensers are provided to eliminate undesirable particles and bacteria. There is also a total ban on fork-lift trucks and potentially contaminated wooden pallets at the new filling plant.
Dow Jones Sustainability Index World – LANXESS’s sustainability wins recognition
Quality also means acting sustainably and accepting social responsibility as well as responsibility for safety and environmental protection. “A key sign of our excellent performance in these areas is our inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) World,” remarks Waldi. The world’s leading sustainability ranking uses a detailed analysis based on economically relevant factors to identify the top ten percent of companies with the best economic, environmental and social performance standards in a given sector. LANXESS was included in the index for the sixth time in a row in September 2016.
This year, among other things, its performance in the management of innovation processes and its climate strategy were highlighted. At the beginning of the year, the Group had set itself the new climate protection target of achieving a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
“Quality and sustainability have become a key focal point for us. To a certain extent, they’re the catalysts for creating value for our customers,” says Luis López-Remón, head of LANXESS’s Leather business unit. “We’re increasingly focusing on actively supporting our customers’ innovation processes. Advice on trends, solution concepts and technology improvements is becoming ever more important and goes far beyond the portfolio of a conventional chemicals supplier,” he adds.
For example, the Leather business unit joined forces with CADS to provide around 50 companies including Esprit, Hugo Boss, Gucci, Reno, Deichmann, s.Oliver and C&A with information about the use of preservatives containing phenol in leather manufacture at a two-day seminar. CADS brings together leading shoe brands under the umbrella of the German Shoe Institute. Among other things, it is committed to ensuring that leather manufacture meets ambitious requirements restricting the use of certain substances.
“It’s important to us to pass on our expertise to specialists and demonstrate our highly responsible manufacture and sale of biocides,” says Dietrich Tegtmeyer, head of Innovation and Leather Industry Relations.
For many products such as textiles, shoes and furniture, limits for problematic substances are defined in the Restricted Substances List (RSL). These RSL limits, which make sense for textiles, are in many cases simply transferred to leather products without re-evaluating them for the specific application. Some brands ban the use of preservatives containing phenol in their leather manufacturing operations even though scientific risk assessments prove that these biocides do not pose a risk in such operations, provided the necessary application-related requirements are complied with.
“The comprehensive information and risk assessments we offered customers for our preservatives made some seminar participants change their minds. For example, several brands modified their RSLs in line with our recommendations. As a result, the LANXESS active ingredients OPP (o-phenylphenol) and CMK (p-chloro-m-cresol), which contain phenol, can now be used without any problem for the preservation of Burberry leathers,” reveals Tegtmeyer.
The quality of products and application advice to customers has top priority for LANXESS’s Leather business unit. It is therefore vital to have an accurate idea of customer requirements and ensure regular communication. The fact that this is appreciated is demonstrated by LANXESS’s long-standing and trusting relationships with a great many business partners. Satisfied customers return – which makes the customers of LANXESS’s Leather business unit just like diners at a restaurant.
